Thursday, 29 January 2009

How I heard about this song: I think I originally heard "The Reason" by Hoobastank from a compilation album way back in the day, and liked it so I decided to buy their album. Little did I realise that the rest of the album would kick "The Reason"'s ass!

Why I like this song: They bring so many awesome aspects together in this song. How the intro continues to play even though it doesn't run in the same vein as the melody. Plus the double vocals. I love that. And then when they really kick in...there's a lot of emotion there. Ok, I'm an emo. I admit it! Plus I guess I love the line "Do you know that everytime you're near, everybody else seems far away". I love that feeling. ♥

Info on the artist and album: This song is from the album "The Reason" but they have recently brought out a new album which I hope to get soon, titled "For(n)ever"

Wednesday, 28 January 2009

This may seem a bit random (but hey, that's just me...) but I always remember when I was a kid thinking why my parents had SO many keys! I really often wondered if I'd ever have that many keys. I remember being given my first key to my parents house and thinking, wow I have my own keys now! Which is pretty sad for a kid who collected keyrings... So anyhow. Today I realised that I do own a lot of keys.

There's my car key, two keys for my front door, one for the back door, two for my parents house, one for my pedestal drawer under my desk at work (dispite the fact that the lock is now broken as they broke into my pedestal while I was off sick), two keys for my drawer in the filing cabinet at work and my work fob.

On a completely different note, I really missed my nan today. She passed away when I was 9. I think it's either because I've been feeling poorly recently, and she was always a great comfort to me. Or because all the shops are selling easter eggs already, and it was at easter that she died. I miss her. She was a wonderful lady. She made the BEST mince and dumplings. And she had a tin of miniature mars bars & milky ways that she kept on top of the fridge. Aaah I hope I see her again one day...

Saturday, 24 January 2009

Wow, blogging three days in a ROW, what a novelty! (I've just noticed though, because its 12:40am it counts as Saturday and not Friday, oh well!)

I've been perusing the "blogs of note" on blogger, and wondering what makes a blog...of note. Note-worthy. I wonder. I noticed that a lot of the aforementioned blogs contained pictures. And I also noticed that a lot of my favourite blogs that I read contain photos. Which just goes to show, that a picture is worth a thousand words. Which then led me to think what a shame it is that I don't take pictures any more.

I used to take pictures of EVERYTHING. I used to do "a day in my life", which is a community on Livejournal dedicated to posts and posts of a day in people's lives, photographically. I've only ever done one, but I've started many more. Then either got bored or embarrassed of the little life things I was taking pictures of. I guess part of that comes from my dad saying "what on earth are you doing?!" when I was taking a picture of my dinner one time. Ha. Oh well. I definitely miss photography though, but I'm REALLY not getting on well with my camera. I had a Canon Powershot G3 at one time, and sold it to buy a Fujifilm Finepix F30. Bad move. Yes, its handy having a smaller camera. But no, it does not take the same quality of photos as my Canon did. It's just a shame and I desperately want a Canon EOS 450d (Rebel XSi to the Americans!) and I'm hoping maybe a millionnaire might come across this post and think "hey, I'll buy her one!".....maybe? You can hope right?

I also used to take a lot of photos of myself. Self portraits. But then I stopped. Self confidence issues. I tried to do the whole 365 thing on Flickr, a self portrait per day, but who was I kidding? I think back to things like Christmas and New Year and think, why didn't I take more pictures?! Gah! In fact I didn't take any.

I really feel like its something I want to persue again...if only I could afford (or justify spending the money on) a much better camera. I shall end this by posting a couple of my favourite photos from the past, that I have taken.

Thursday, 22 January 2009

How I heard about this song: I have been an Evanescence fan since they began, and heard this song on their second album. I played it over and over and over and over and over...and many a time did I accidentally strain my voice by attempting to sing this song with a little too much gusto in my car...

Why I like this song: Firstly, the intro. It is so beautiful! But then I'm a fan of both piano solos and violins (the latter I used to play back in my childhood). It just holds so much passion and pain in this song. And I guess the insecure side of me can really relate to the words, about not feeling good enough.

Wednesday, 21 January 2009

I fully intended on writing a blog about how lousy I feel with my health, how absolutely exhausted I am and how rubbish work is at the moment. But then I decided that it would be boring to read, and it wouldn't help me AT all. So instead, I'm going to write a few things I am thankful for.

♥ I am thankful for my lovely husband, who does his best to understand me.

♥ I am thankful for my family, who love me unconditionally and would move the world for me.

♥ I am thankful for the internet, there are so many people I wouldn't have met if it hadn't have existed - including my spiritual twin!

♥ I am thankful that I have a roof over my head, and its a fairly nice roof I may add!

♥ I am thankful that I have a job, as in this economy nothing is certain for some people but I have the luxury of feeling safe.

♥ I am thankful for creativity - great movies that have come from people's imaginations, beautiful songs that flow from the soul.

♥ And finally, I am thankful for a God who loves me unconditionally, even when I don't feel too close, I know he is always there.

What are you thankful for?

Edit: I just saw "Yes Man" at the cinema and it was fantastic, you gotta see it! I also changed my blog layout, I wanted something more colourful and pretty. Well actually I was going for something wider for the content but it didn't happen. Let me know what you think!

Thursday, 15 January 2009

I have decided, as part of my blog-habit makeover, to post a song that I absolutely love every week. Partly so that I can look back and remember all of the songs that I fell in love with, and partly to share songs that I think are inspirational with others. So here goes.

"Albertine" - by Brooke Fraser

How I heard about this song: Brooke Fraser was at the Hillsong Colour Conference in London last year, as part of the worship team. She was absolutely amazing! Recently a friend of mine sent me a worship song that she sung (that will more than likely feature in another of these posts!) and I just ADORE her voice. So I got her new album, "Albertine", and this is my absolute favourite.

Why I like this song: Because it has true and deep meaning. Albertine is a girl who Brooke met while she was in Rwanda, and its all about Brooke wanting to spread the word in the rest of the world at the pain and suffering that is going on in Rwanda. Its about raising awareness, and caring for the rest of the world. Unlike Lily Allen's new song which is about materialism, money and living for yourself.

Info on the artist and album: Brooke Fraser's website should give you all the info you need. It even has the lyrics for this song. My favourite line being "Faith without deeds is dead". This track is found on her album "Albertine".

I stayed at my sisters house so that it would be quicker this morning to get to the hospital. It was strange sleeping alone as I'm used to saying to someone else, "turn over, you're snoring!".

I woke up to a kiss on the cheek from my 5 year old nephew. We then discussed deep and meaningful things such as the fact that he'd rather be a squirrel than a boy so that he didn't have to go to school. I said squirrels don't get to play on the computer or the Wii, and he almost changed his mind until we discussed whether Nintendo made squirrel-friendly Wiis...

I had the BEST shower, mostly because ours is crap so anything else is awesome in comparison. And my sisters new hairdryer, that I bought her for Christmas consequently, is brilliant so I think I may have to get one for myself.

After hospital we're going to "Cane & Able", a cleverly named shop that sells walking sticks and the like. I hope they have colourful walking sticks. I need a bit of colour in my life.

Edit: I just taught my 2 year old nephew how to say "blog". I wonder if he'll ever write his own blog one day...

Wednesday, 14 January 2009

I haven't blogged for a while. That's just the way life goes. Sometimes you have your moments, other times you just...don't. So recently hasn't really been my moment. I think the rest of life kind of got in the way, and I don't mind that at all.

Christmas and New Year were fun. They disappeared into a blur of spending time with our two families and have now faded into mere memories. Good ones. My darling husband bought me a microphone stand, so I will be doing some singing soon I hope!

For the past two days I have been in and out of hospital. First was an appointment to see the rheumatologist. Second was a bone profile scan with a bit of radioactive injection and a lot of laying still. 30 mins of being scanned whilst you have to lay completely still gives you some time to think about some things! Tomorrow I will be going back for a bone density scan. I'm seeing one of the top rheumatologists in the country, so I feel like I'm finally getting somewhere.

------------------------------

Well, the above feels like a bit of just a boring update. Including a partial apology for not blogging, which is ridiculous as this is MY blog (so there!!) - I was just reading Megan's blog and she was talking about how blogging has turned into some kind of...I don't know what word to give it. So i'm just going to quote her instead, i'm sure she won't mind...

Why do people blog? People don't blog for themselves... that's called journaling. You know, with a pen filling up pages that nobody else reads until you're dead. People blog because they want other people to read what they write and find it interesting and valuable.

It's so true, how a lot of people seek affirmation (that's the word I was looking for!!) from others from what they write. I don't want this blog to be like that. Oh by all means, feel free to comment. It's nice when people are interested in my life. But I do want this blog to be for me, and to feel compelled to write in it, not for affirmation but for release.

At the moment it feels like I'm going into a completely new stage in life. Things are changing, and fairly rapidly. I think back to this time last year, and even two years ago and think wow, how things have changed! Challenges are going to be faced very soon. I'm not sure how I'll cope with them. But what I want to focus on is how to lean on God through all these challenges.

I've been asked to sing at my friend's wedding in October. WOW!! I feel so privileged, even to be asked! They want me as backing vocals for the worship, and then possibly lead vocals for one of the songs, and maybe a song whilst the register is being signed. I'm so nervous about it! But I really want to conquer my fears - the big fear of "what do people think of me?!". I don't want that to hold me back anymore. So yes, I will be singing. ARGH!

Right, I've decided. I want to do a 101 in 1001. (For those of you who don't know, that's 101 goals to meet/things to do in 1001 days...) I'm hoping to think of 101 things, and I shall be using friends lists as inspiration! And looking deep within me to see what I REALLY want in life.

About This Bloggerer

I am Jules. 25 years on this earth, married to a wonderful man, and trying to figure this life out. I've been documenting aspects of my life on the world wide web since 2000, but have recently transferred alliegance from Livejournal to Blogger. I can't help it, its just prettier! I decided to not let my blog become a vent for life-complaints. That's dull, and fairly selfish as my quality of life is far higher than that of millions of people in this world. Therefore I just use this blog as a creative outlet, sometimes talking about personal life events, sometimes just musing. I also post a "Song of the Moment" because music is one of my life passions. I also have a singing blog along with my twin (Twins That Sing), which we hope to continue way into the future.